Former football coach Derek Dooley announces Georgia Senate bid for 2026

There’s a new Republican candidate jumping into one of the most crucial Senate races in the 2026 midterm elections.

Former longtime football coach Derek Dooley highlighted his outsider credentials, took aim at Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, and showcased his support for President Donald Trump as he declared his candidacy on Monday.

 “I’m running because our state needs new leadership in Washington D.C., and professional politicians like Jon Ossoff are the problem,” Dooley said in a statement and video as he launched his campaign.

Dooley argued that “our state doesn’t have a voice in the U.S. Senate who reflects Georgia values because Ossoff is more concerned with protecting his own political future, opposing everything the Trump administration is working to accomplish, and repeatedly voting with the extreme left.”

TRUMP HOUSE ALLY REP. MIKE COLLINS JUMPS INTO BATTLEGROUND GEORGIA’S SENATE RACE

And he pledged that if elected to the Senate, “I’ll work with President Trump to implement his agenda, support his Administration, and move our country forward.”

POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR PASSES ON SENATE BID IN 2026

The Senate race in Georgia is crucial for Republicans aiming to expand their current 53-47 Senate majority, as they view Ossoff, who is running for re-election in a battleground state that Trump narrowly carried in last year’s presidential contest, as the most vulnerable Democrat on the ballot in next year’s midterms.

Dooley, who is the son of the late, legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, was a college football player who later served as a head coach at Louisiana Tech University and the University of Tennessee as well as an assistant coach in the National Football League. 

While this is his first run for public office, Republican sources confirm to Fox News that he’s expected to have the endorsement of Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia’s popular two-term conservative Republican governor.

Dooley becomes the third major Republican candidate currently in Georgia’s Senate race.

Two-term Rep. Mike Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company who represents a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta, announced his candidacy a week ago. Collins, a Trump ally and supporter in the House, showcased his support for the president in his campaign launch.

And Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. He is also courting the president’s support.

Dooley appeared to take a jab at his two rivals for the nomination, saying “I’m not part of the political establishment, and I haven’t spent my life climbing the D.C. political ladder.”

He pledged that he’s “running to put Georgia First and bring common sense to D.C. Georgians know biological men shouldn’t be playing in women’s sports, hardworking people should keep more of their money, and opening our borders makes us less safe.”

Dooley is a longtime friend of Kemp, and two of the governor’s top political advisers are helping Dooley with his Senate run.

The term-limited Kemp, who was heavily recruited by national Republicans to take on Ossoff but who earlier this year passed on launching his own Senate campaign in 2026, has made it clear in recent days that he would be backing Dooley, sources familiar confirmed to Fox News.

Meanwhile, sources in Trump’s political orbit and Republican sources in Georgia confirmed to Fox News that there was an agreement between the president’s political operation and Kemp’s political team that they would work together to find a candidate that they could all unify behind to take on Ossoff in the Senate race.

Those sources also confirmed that Kemp and Trump – the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics – met last month to discuss the Senate race in Georgia.

TRUMP TEAM ‘PISSED OFF’ WITH REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE SENATE NOMINATION RACE

But when the governor floated the name of former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, a source close to the president’s political team said “they were told to stand down, because Trump’s team wasn’t ready to move forward on anybody.”

And when Kemp and his team did move forward with Dooley, it upset Trump’s advisers, who, according to sources, were “already pretty annoyed” that Kemp had passed earlier this year on taking on Ossoff in the Senate race.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“We had a deal to work together,” a top political source in the Trump orbit told Fox News recently.  “Kemp went out on his own – which has frustrated and pissed off Trump orbit.”

But a source close to the governor told Fox News that it’s factually not true that they were told to stand down on Dooley. And the source added that Kemp meant what he said that he wants to work with the president and his team and remains that way.